Vladimir Fesenko On Trump And Xi Meeting: This Statement Is Important To Pay Attention To

30.10.2025, 15:57 charter97.org

Vladimir Fesenko On Trump And Xi Meeting: This Statement Is Important To Pay Attention To30.10.2025, 16:45 Vladimir FesenkoAre the US, Russia and China starting a "nuclear race"?US President Donald Trump rated "12 out of 10" his meeting with Chinese President Si Jinping on October 30 in South Korea. The White House chief also noted that the issue of ending the war in Ukraine "came up very seriously" and said that "Xi will help" and they will work together on the issue.After the talks, Trump announced a 10 percent reduction in duties on Chinese goods.How realistic can Washington and Beijing cooperate to achieve peace in Ukraine? What points of contact do the two superpowers have on joint pressure on the Kremlin?About this, Charter97.org talked to a well-known Ukrainian political scientist, head of the Center for Applied Political Research "Penta" Vladimir Fesenko:- Let's start by noting that this kind of statement is in Trump's style. On the one hand, he says so when the meeting as a whole went positively, and he is basically satisfied with the results. What follows are classic Trumpian exaggerations. It's part of his political style, part of his rhetoric.He always does very well: he has good relations with Kim Jong-in, with Putin, with Xi Jinping. If something doesn't work out, Trump talks about it too. If there are real problems, he does mention it: no agreement can be reached, Putin doesn't agree to end the war. Or some other problem has arisen - Hamas is violating the ceasefire.This assessment of Trump, I think, shows that on the whole the meeting was friendly and positive. By and large an agreement was reached, as used to be said in such cases. In general Trump and Xi Jinping agreed.But, as we know, the devil is in the details.I wouldn't be so optimistic, thinking that everything is "now Trump and Xi Jinping have solved all the problems," including Ukraine.I'll give a concrete example. Trump, in the context of his meeting with Xi Jinping, wrote a very revealing post about his instructions to prepare for the resumption of nuclear testing. Many people were even somewhat surprised by this. Most commentators believe that this is Russia's response - a response to the Burevestnik, Poseidon tests.Putin is playing missiles, and Trump is showing Putin: we have nuclear weapons too, and we will modernize them. For now, this warning is such a demonstrative response to Putin: "Don't scare me, I can scare you too." Let's see if there will be a resumption of nuclear weapons testing, because this is very serious. If that starts, there will be a new nuclear arms race.However, this statement by Trump is also about China. Today China is third, as Trump wrote, and is far behind the US and Russia, but tomorrow it could catch up. That is, the modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons, among other things, is about China's challenges.I'll explain what the point is here. The point is that Trump has been advocating since his first presidency that China join the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. But China has refused. And Russia, by the way, also refused.In Trump's first term, the treaty was not signed, was not extended. Biden and Russia renewed it, but China remained outside the Treaty. The treaty is very important - it restrains nuclear capabilities, and it is necessary to somehow join China to it too, but China does not want to. I'm sure Trump has brought this up. Xi Jinping said "no" in a soft, non-confrontational manner.They did not agree on all issues, apparently.The fact that they agreed on trade and economic agreements, on TikTok, on rare earth metals - let's wait for concrete documents, the signing of relevant agreements, then all these positive statements by Trump will be confirmed. Then we can say that the meeting was very productive.Now, as for Ukraine. Here I am very reserved. I had no illusions before the meeting and I have no illusions now that this meeting will bring the war in Ukraine closer to an end.I will refer to Trump. What did he say in his comments to journalists? A famous phrase he repeated: "They still want to fight" - meaning Russia and Ukraine. It's a phrase Trump utters when he fails to agree on an end to hostilities. In this case, since he said it, there are no specific agreements to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine.If, for example, they had agreed on something joint - a summit to which Russia and Ukraine would be invited, some kind of peace conference, or a joint shuttle mission of U.S. and Chinese representatives to work with Russia and Ukraine - that would have been mentioned. But there are no specifics.Most likely, Xi Jinping could have promised Trump that he would talk to Putin and that he, too, favors ending the war. Yes, formally he does, but China's official position appeared only on the first anniversary of the big war between Russia and Ukraine - in February 2023.We'll see what happens next, but I don't see any breakthrough, no active public actions by China aimed at ending the war yet. There are no clear preconditions for China to do something very serious, weighty right now to bring this war to an end. Xi Jinping is certainly not going to pressure Putin. To talk - yes, that I quite admit.What could be positive? If relations between China and the US, especially trade and economic relations, are non-conflictual, if there is political interaction between China and the US, then maybe after some time, if Beijing comes to realize that now it is better to stop the war in Ukraine, not to create risks for global trade, it will play a more active role in ending the Russian-Ukrainian war.But so far, judging even by Trump's comments, I don't see any concrete solutions, no clear concrete prerequisites for more active Chinese actions to end this war. What is Xi Jinping's interest in making gifts to Trump? After all, that's Trump's job now - he aspires to be the world's chief peacemaker. It is one thing to agree on rare earth metals, on tariffs - there is a direct interest of China and the U.S. so that there is no trade war. In the case of Ukraine, we are talking about a conflict in which China is not formally involved.Everyone repeats the phrase of the Chinese Foreign Minister that it is unprofitable for Beijing to defeat Russia. Yes, this is true, but unfortunately, we are not talking about defeat now. Russia's victory is also disadvantageous for China. The continuation of the war creates certain problems for Beijing, but it suits it, because this war weakens Russia.China is disadvantaged by the escalation of the war, and even more so by its transfer to neighboring countries, especially the countries of the European Union, because it would be a threat to its economic interests. So China has a contradictory interest in this plan, but there is no clear direct interest to be particularly active in ending this war.If Trump was not engaged in this war, then I don't exclude that maybe China, together with some of its partners, would be more active to show its role as a peacemaker, to show its global role - that it can end these kinds of conflicts. Here, the U.S. is playing the leading role, and it is a competitor, a rival. Now they agree among themselves, but why help the competitor, why make it even more successful?So far I don't see China's direct interest here. Maybe it will appear due to one or another circumstance. Since there is no information about such joint actions, there are no specific agreements.PATREONSupport the website Write your comment You can support the website Charter97.orgMULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.Address: ul. 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